Band manager Terry Selders is using a “viral marketing consultant” to help his Wilkes-Barre-based rock group, Pan.a.ce.a.

View full sizeThe Patriot-News, 2008Lookout Point from Hanover performs at Rumours in Enola during MMC12.

That might sound like someone selling a flu vaccine, but it’s an expert who can provide strategies to exploit the whirlwind arena of electronic music and online social networks.

“It’s a job title that not long ago didn’t even exist,” Selders said. “The guy I’m using is a former Warner Bros. Records employee, and he likes to quote something that David Lee Roth once said: ‘Here today, gone later today.’ ”

That pretty much sums up today’s hyper-evolving music scene, where fortunes can rise or fall based on how well Google and Facebook treat you from one moment to the next. That is one reason Pan.a.ce.a and 299 other musical groups will descend on the Harrisburg area this weekend for the 15th annual Millennium Music Conference.

The conference, which opens today and continues through Sunday, is a great chance for central Pennsylvania music fans to catch performances by potential stars in country, rock, pop, heavy metal and hip-hop. All of the bands in attendance will play at least one 40-minute set of original music in one of 30 live music venues over the next four days. No cover or tribute bands here.

Musicians from all over the country will attend panels and symposiums designed to help them learn how the new music industry works.

More than 148 speakers, mentors and exhibitors will be on hand Friday and Saturday afternoons at the Radisson Hotel Harrisburg Hershey in East Pennsboro Township, which serves as Millennium headquarters during the conference. Band members can talk to industry professionals about succeeding in a fast-changing business.

“Bands that think they are going to come here and meet a record label executive and sign a recording contract are deluding themselves,” conference founder John Harris said. “Times have changed. There’s an entirely new paradigm.”

Music’s new vernacular The language of music these days isn’t focused on quaint concepts such as albums, recording contracts, FM radio play and arena tours.

A sign of the change is ReverbNation, a do-it-yourself promotional website for musicians that has registered more than 1 million artists in five years. ReverbNation co-founder Lou Plaia will attend Millennium to discuss the business side of being a band.

The keynote speaker for Millennium will be Halestorm, a breakout rock band from York County featuring singer and songwriter Lzzy Hale. They’ll speak at 5:15 p.m. Friday in the Radisson.

“They’ll talk about how they got where they are today,” Harris said.

The band will perform at 10:30 p.m. Saturday at the Radisson, following Fools for Rowan at 8:15 p.m. and Pan.a.ce.a at 9:15 p.m. Pan.a.ce.a also will perform at 11 p.m. Friday at Drinkin’ Bone in Wormleysburg.

Halestorm, which formed in 1998, performed at a Millennium Music Conference years ago, when the band was struggling to get noticed. Now the group is in the spotlight with an EP, an album, a recording contract with Atlantic and a coming national tour with several other metal bands. Hale was named one of metal’s hottest women by Revolver magazine.

She said it’s been worth the years of sacrifice, which included giving up her high school prom to tour. “We’re a success personally, because I’m not working in a Burger King somewhere,” Hale said. “To be able to walk out on stage and do the thing you love most and make a career out of it, to me, that’s definitely success.”

Musical middle classTrue superstars are few and far between these days.

Only a handful, including Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, have broken through to achieve multiplatinum CDs and big-money stadium tours in the past couple of years. A more likely path is the independent one traversed by newly minted Grammy stars such as Arcade Fire and Mumford and Sons.

“More artists will be able to make a decent living, but there will be far fewer superstars,” Plaia said. “It’s more middle-class now, because anybody can make music and promote it cheaply now.”

Selders said the best way to do that is full immersion in electronic media. Bands don’t just have websites anymore. They appear on mass-appeal sites such as Facebook and MySpace, along with more specialized platforms such as ReverbNation, SoundExchange and Twiturm, which is a music-exchange site through Twitter. They get their songs on music downloading sites and Internet radio stations.

The idea is to build, nurture and hold your fan base.

“An artist’s No. 1 resource is fans,” Selders said. “Fan interaction is a huge aspect. You want to have places where they can go and learn everything they need to know about the band. Where the band is from, where to buy their music, upcoming shows.”

Harris, a promoter by trade, used to handle bands such as Kix, which issued several records in the 1980s and toured in support of them. “That’s gone,” he said.

Conference also evolves Like the music industry, Millennium also has evolved over the past 15 years, growing from fewer than 100 bands to its present size.

Performance venues have moved away from downtown Harrisburg — where live music is no longer in vogue — to suburban clubs such as Drinkin’ Bone, Gullifty’s Underground and Rock Kat Bar and Grill in Duncannon. There are also nontraditional venues like Harrisburg Area Community College and the Midtown Scholar Bookstore in the mix.

Harris said attendance remains strong at most venues, although he doesn’t track it. Some venues have a cover charge, others offer the Millennium shows for free, relying on food and beverage sales to make money. The bands play at no charge.

“The main way I would find out is if nobody shows up at a particular venue,” he said. “Then I’d hear from them.”

Since its inception, the conference has taken on a life of its own, providing a road map for artists trying to earn their living by playing music.

“Every year I threaten to quit doing it,” Harris said. “But every year I’m back.”

Related Stories

Featured Story

Get 'Today's Front Page' in your inbox

This newsletter is sent every morning at 6 a.m. and includes the morning's top stories, a full list of obituaries, links to comics and puzzles and the most recent news, sports and entertainment headlines.

optionalCheck here if you do not want to receive additional email offers and information.See our privacy policy

Thank you for signing up for 'Today's Front Page'

To view and subscribe to any of our other newsletters, please click here.